November 9, 2006

The great editorial cartoonist Herblock used to draw Richard Nixon with a dark 5 o'clock shadow, but when Nixon was re-elected, Herblock drew him in a barber shop getting what Herblock called, "a free shave."

Tuesday was my birthday, and a better present I could not have gotten than the poll results from the election. I couldn't care less about the Democrats as a party, but I cared deeply about all the power resting in the hands of a corrupt and contaminated GOP.

I used to vote almost entirely Republican. I never joined the party, but I thought of myself as a moderate Republican. When I was growing up, the Democrats were the party that got us into war and the Republicans were the ones who got us out.

I quit voting mostly Republican in 1980 when Ronald Reagan invited the religious right to a seat at the table.

Now, I must confess. I was wrong about thinking a viable third party should be a centrist party. Tuesday's election made me realize that the new third party should be made up of the religious right.

I even have a name for it: The Christian Republican Party. There is a party in some countries called Christian Democrats. I'm inviting all people who define themselves as part of the religious right to leave the Republicans and start your own party.

The GOP is earthly, mundane and practical. The religious right is spiritual, trying to live by God's commandments. These two groups are incompatible and they each confuse and corrupt the other's mission.

A Christian Republican Party could compete in the marketplace of ideas. Have a convention, nominate candidates who are articulate and can explain your position. It's your only hope politically.

Until then, I'm afraid the religious right will face nothing but frustration with the two major parties and find no home in either. I've been a Christian all my life, and I know it's impossible to blend religion and politics. Religion is for the soul. Politics is the fine art of lying. The two are incompatible.